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Saturday, January 22, 2011

Finances and Mondo goals

You think you earn X amount and before you know it (and our "month" is only 2 days old as I get paid on the 20th), you have thousands gone...

Also, last month we overspent on our grocery budget by 75%.

Don't ask - I don't know how either. But I've told D we need to be a bit more vigilant about finishing food in the house before just buying more and more things.

On the bright side, everything now balances and all is good with the world.

I've decided to put it out there on my Mondo list that I want to pay off our bond this year.

Our bond was registered on 7 Jan 2006 (I don't know how I keep remembering such arbitrary dates...but I do) and so it is 5 years old.

Every time we buy a property (this is the 3rd) we set a goal to pay off the bond in 5 years. First one was "easy" because the bond was so small, second one we only stayed there 3.5 years but whittled a good chunk away and I think we would have done this one had it not been for the IVFs.

Nevertheless, that was the best R80-odd thousand we ever spent as we now have these beautiful children who make us laugh at their craziness every single day.

So I've worked the numbers and at first I thought if we could live very frugally with no "life", we could do it. But that's just not me.

Instead we will live semi-frugally (really just watch unnecessary expenses) but still go on a few holidays and I will work my BUTT off (in the gym and at work) and trust God for a fantastic bonus again this year plus TWO salary increases.

Why not, I say? I serve a Big God!

I like to use my bonus for travel but I'm also sensible and do put some away.

Do you know how scary it is to put this goal out there?

But this is what I meant when I chose COURAGE for my word of the year.

I never had problems believing in BIG DREAMS before and I need to start doing so again.

So watch this space - by 31 Dec 2011 our bond will be paid off. I'm not worrying about the how at the moment.

I get all fluttery on the inside just thinking about it - fantastic :)Do you have any scary financial goals?

I think that you will totally pull this one off. The desire and the drive are there and I guess now it's just a matter of doing it.My only financial goal is to become debt free - and I haven't even exluded the bond. There is a plan in place and we are sticking to it although it is really difficult.x

We have paid off about 85% of our bond, but now we need a bigger house and in stead of selling, we want to keep this one and rent it out. It is going to be tough, but so worth it to have a retirement investment.